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Unorthodox

Tablet is the web's top destination for Jewish news and culture, and on Unorthodox its writers say stuﬀ their editors can't edit out. From Israel to American elections, from Drake (yes, he's Jewish) to Amy Schumer, host Mark Oppenheimer and guests—including a special Gentile of the Week—oﬀer frank, funny takes on the news of the Jews.

Tablet is the web's top destination for Jewish news and culture, and on Unorthodox its writers say stuﬀ their editors can't edit out. From Israel to American elections, from Drake (yes, he's Jewish) to Amy Schumer, host Mark Oppenheimer and guests—including a special Gentile of the Week—oﬀer frank, funny takes on the news of the Jews.

Tablet is the web's top destination for Jewish news and culture, and on Unorthodox its writers say stuﬀ their editors can't edit out. From Israel to American elections, from Drake (yes, he's Jewish) to Amy Schumer, host Mark Oppenheimer and guests—including a special Gentile of the Week—oﬀer frank, funny takes on the news of the Jews.

Language:

English

Episodes

This week, we talk to writer Molly Lambert, who shares the story of her grandmother Margaret Bergmann Lambert , a German-Jewish high jumper barred from the 1936 Olympics. We're also joined by Annette Ezekiel Kogan and Jeremy Brown of Golem, the klezmer-rock band behind our theme music. They perform a few favorites for us, including 7:40, a song based on the "Hava Nagilah of Russia."
But wait, there's more! We visited the Harlem Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, a diverse dual-language...

Recorded live at at the Limmud Festival, an international celebration of Jewish learning and culture, in Birmingham, U.K. over Christmas. Mark hosted the show with writer and challah maven Sarah Klegman. Our guests are Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, a vocalist, composer, and arranger specializing in Yiddish art and folk song, and Gabby Edlin, the founder of Bloody Good Period, which provides sanitary supplies to asylum seekers, refugees & those who can't afford them.
Tablet is conducting a...

Our guest this week is Tova Mirvis, whose memoir, The Book of Separation [http://tovamirvis.com/author/books/book-of-separation/], tells the story of her decision to leave Modern Orthodox Judaism, a world she recreated vividly for readers in the novels Visible City, The Outside World, and The Ladies Auxiliary.
Our next live show is Wednesday, March 21 at the JCC Manhattan. Tickets here...

This week's episode was recorded at the Manhattan JCC. Our Jewish guest is comedian and actor Judy Gold, host of the podcast Kill Me Now. Our gentile of the week is Father James Martin, Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine.
Missed the live show? Join us Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. for an intimate, off-the-record chat with Rabbi Sara Luria at Beloved in Brooklyn. Tickets here.
Want more Unorthodox in your life? Join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what...

This week, we've got something a little different for you. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan 27, we sat down with Sandy Myers and Desiree Nazarian of Selfhelp Community Services, an organization that provides assistance to Holocaust survivors in need in the New York area. We talked about the particular needs of aging Holocaust survivors, and how to help them.
Our next full episode will drop on Monday, Jan 29.
Some announcements:
Come hang with us on Tuesday,...

Come see us live at the Manhattan JCC on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m., with special guests comedian Judy Gold and Father James Martin! More info and tickets here. And on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m., we’ll be joining Rabbi Sara Luria for an intimate, off-the-record chat at Beloved in Brooklyn. Tickets here.
This week on Unorthodox, Mark calls up Roy Moore's 'Jewish lawyer,' and Stephanie sits down with Jeffrey Masters, host of the podcast LGBTQ&A, which documents stories of the LGBTQ...

We have two upcoming events! A live recording at JCC Manhattan on 1/24 (tickets here), and a intimate, off-the-record schmooze with the hosts at Beloved in Brooklyn on 1/30 (tickets here). Plus, we're looking for a new producer—maybe that person is... you?
This week, Mark sits down with Rabbi Joseph Hample of the Tree of Life Congregation in Morgantown, West Virginia. We're also joined by musicians David Chevan and Warren Byrd of the Afro-Semitic Experience, who tell us about fusing...

We'll be recording live at the Manhattan JCC on Wednesday 1/24 at with special guests Judy Gold and Father James Martin! Get your tickets here.
This week on Unorthodox, we respond to your questions on everything from Jewish pregnancy superstitions to what to read and watch while converting to Judaism. Plus we dive into the great tin foil vs. plastic baggie debate.
Want more Unorthodox in your life? Join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! And...

We'll be recording live in NYC on 1/24 with comedian Judy Gold and Father James Martin! Buy your tickets here.
This week: Everything you ever wanted to know about nose jobs, and their particular prominence in American Jewish life. Tablet editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse and executive editor Wayne Hoffman discuss their personal experiences with rhinoplasty. Plastic surgeon Jonathan Kaplan, founder of price transparency platform BuildMyBod, breaks down exactly what happens during a nose job,...

Hey J.Crew! A little bonus content for you this Monday afternoon:
Unorthodox host Mark Oppenheimer published an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this year about our aversion to using the word 'Jew,' as opposed to 'Jewish.' On Wednesday, he appeared on WNYC's 'On the Media' with Brooke Gladstone to discuss these ideas in the context of Kayla Moore's recent controversial remarks about the Moores' Jewish attorney. Give a listen, and, as always, let us know what you think at...

We'll be recording live at the Manhattan JCC on Wednesday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. with special guests comedian Judy Gold and Father James Martin! Buy tickets here.
Our Jewish guest this week is writer Jordana Horn Gordon, who returns to discuss her Hanukkah gifting strategy as the mother of six children. Our gentile of the week is journalist and religion scholar Reza Aslan, who tells us about his latest book, God: A Human History.
Want more Unorthodox in your life? Join our Facebook...

This week we're coming to you live from Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City!
Our next live show will take place on January 24 at JCC Manhattan, with Father James Martin and comedian Judy Gold. Get your tickets here!
Our Jewish guest is food writer Mark Bittman, who just released the tenth anniversary edition of How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. He talked to us about the link between agriculture and global warming, and why Americans need to eat more real food. (But despite that,...

This week on Unorthodox: Beauty pageant diplomacy, Gal Gadot's Mossad mix-up, and so much more.
Our gentile of the week is Noreen Malone, New York magazine features editor and DoubleX Gabfest panelist. She tells us about growing up Catholic in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Shaker Heights, her powerful 2015 cover story on 35 of Bill Cosby's accusers, and asks whether it's ever okay to call someone "jappy."
Our Jewish guest this week is feminist author, speaker, and psychologist...

Our Jewish guest this week is Lani Santo, the executive director of Footsteps, a New York-based organization dedicated to helping formerly-Orthodox Jews establish new lives outside the insular communities in which they were raised. We discuss the new Netflix documentary ‘One of Us,’ which follows the lives of three Footsteps members.
Our gentile of the week is Richard F. Thomas, Harvard Classics professor and author of the new book Why Bob Dylan Matters, which explores the literary themes...

This week on Unorthodox, we can't be tamed.
Our Jewish guest is Eddy Portnoy, senior researcher and director of exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, whose new book is Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. He tells us how he stumbled upon these colorful, less-remembered characters and tales—so many of which seem to involve Jews rioting—and why it's important for a community to examine the good with the bad to truly know its history. Our...

This week on Unorthodox, we've got food on the brain.
Our first guest is Kerry Brodie, founder of Emma's Torch, a cafe in Brooklyn that employs and trains refugees and political asylum seekers. She tells us about her unlikely transition from government work to culinary school, what she learned about refugees by working alongside them in the kitchen, and why she believes food is such a powerful uniting force.
Our second guest is Lily Diamond, the Maui-born blogger behind Kale and Caramel,...

This week on Unorthodox, we're totally bewitched. Our Jewish guest is novelist Alice Hoffman, whose new book is The Rules of Magic, a prequel to her bestselling 1995 novel Practical Magic, which was made into the 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. She tells us how she re-immersed herself in the magical Owens family 20 years later, the ways in which her Jewish background influenced her interest in rebellious women, and why it's important to her to redefine the popular...

This week, we're live from JCC Manhattan!
Our Jewish guest is writer A.J. Jacobs—our first-ever guest back in 2015—whose latest book is It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. He tells us about his unlikely entry into the world of genealogy, the famous—and infamous—relatives he discovered, and, in a 'Maury'-style twist, reveals which hosts are related to him.
Our gentile of the week is actor Kobi Libii, who played Cantor Duvid on Season 3 of 'Transparent' and...

Our Jewish guest this week is David Litt, author of Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, a memoir about his time as a speechwriter in the Obama White House. He tells us about teaching President Obama to say 'chag sameach' for a Passover video, writing jokes for the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and the time his grandpa sent him a water pipeline proposal to show the president.
Our gentile of the week is U.S. Naval War College professor Thomas Nichols, whose latest book...

This week on Unorthodox, we're all about 5778. Our guest this week is Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the continuing education institute Mechon Hadar, and the author of The Heart of Torah, a new two-volume book of essays about each weekly Torah portion. He tells us why he dreaded tackling Leviticus but learned the most from it, explains why he's optimistic about the future of Judaism, and gives us some useful advice for the new year.
Come see us live on October 25 at the Manhattan...

Duration:00:48:37

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